


Big Brother - Dynamic Duos of the Internet

by stormguard798



Category: 9-1-1 (TV), Big Brother RPF, Keeper of the Lost Cities Series - Shannon Messenger, Magic: The Gathering (Card Game), The Heroes of Olympus - Rick Riordan
Genre: Freeform, Reality TV
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-24
Updated: 2021-03-14
Packaged: 2021-03-15 02:08:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 21,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29676777
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stormguard798/pseuds/stormguard798
Summary: In this definitely unofficial fan-made season of Big Brother, four accomplished duos from Big Brother's past clash against four more duos from fandoms around the internet to see who can best navigate the ultimate social game and claim the title of Big Brother Winner.Updates Wednesdays and Saturdays.
Kudos: 2





	1. Chapter 1 (Week 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, a bunch of disclaimers before we start: 
> 
> 1\. I started writing this when I was disappointed (like a large majority of the fandom, let's be honest) with Big Brother All Stars 2, and I wanted to create a little entertainment of my own. As a result, the relationship dynamic between Dani and Nicole isn't exactly...accurate. 
> 
> 2\. The entirety of the season has already been written, but I will be taking my time to post each part individually...for the suspense. 
> 
> 3\. I'm personally not a fan of all the side-competitions and the Have Not stuff and all the drama that is what makes good TV; as a result, I will only be including the relevant gameplay portions of the show, of course, including plenty of game talk. 
> 
> 4\. I have gone from Big Brother noob to die-hard fan in approximately 4 months. As a result, there are a lot of initial twists that now in hindsight I can see are really bad in terms of gameplay. However, they have such a big knock-on effect on the rest of the season that it wasn't worth it, at least for me, to re-write the whole thing. If I do decide to write another fan season, I guarantee there will be decidedly fewer twists. 
> 
> 5\. It's hard enough to try and manage the social games of 16 different people at once, let alone just 1 person, so I have not tried to imitate the speech patterns of any of the Houseguests. I've made moves and alliances that I think they would form based on their personality, but it's strictly from a gameplay perspective. 
> 
> Alright! I think that's it! Let's get this party started.

[Sparky]

Over the years and summers spent in the Big Brother house, unforgettable duos have dominated this game with their cunning social skills and splashy competition victories. This summer, four duos return to the Big Brother House for an even crazier, wilder summer than they have ever experienced, with over 100 cameras and microphones capturing their every move. But joining them in the fight for the grand prize of half a million dollars – and the title of the Winner of Big Brother - are four brand new duos to the Big Brother game. In this summer full of twists and turns, who will ultimately be victorious? First, let’s meet our returning Houseguests. 

[McCrae]

Sup everyone, it’s McCrae from Big Brother 15. The last time I was on Big Brother, I ended up in a showmance with my fellow Houseguest, Amanda, who completely sunk my gameplay through my association with her. This time, I’m going to use my ability as a competition beast to charge past the opposition and keep my eyes on the prize. 

[Amanda]

Hi Internet, I’m Amanda Zuckerman from Big Brother 15. In my last season, not only did I get caught up by a showmance, but I also made myself too much of a target and stirred up too much drama as one of the undisputed villainesses of the season. This time, I’m going to keep a low profile and keep a level head throughout the game, flirting and leveraging guys to my advantage, and only make myself known to assasinate my targets.

[Amber] 

Hello everybody, I’m Amber from Big Brother 16. In my previous season, I came out of the gates too strong winning competitions and asserting myself as too much of a physical threat, on top of having Caleb creepily come after me my entire stay in the house. [nervous laugh] Now I’m going to prove to myself and the rest of the world that I have a strong social and competition game that can take me far in this game. 

[Caleb] 

Hi y’all, I’m Caleb from BB 16, although you might also recognise me from my appearances on Survivor. The last time I was on Big Brother, I was a part of the infamous Bomb Squad alliance only to be backstabbed at the last moment by my alliance members. Now with a season of experience behind me, I’m going to up my social game, do the stabbing instead of being stabbed, and take it all the way this time around. I hope the rest of the House is ready for the return of Beast Mode Cowboy. 

[Sparky]

Amanda, McCrae, Amber, Caleb. The 4 of you, please enter the Big Brother House. 

[Amber] 

The moment I step into the Big Brother House I can already tell that the aesthetic of this house is going to be massively different from any other season that we’ve seen. For starters, there’s a massive suit of armor positioned right next to the door of the house. Then there is these massive banner hanging across the walls of the house with names and symbols representing the different alliances through the seasons: The Sixth Sense, the Renegades, Level Six, the Hitmen. Hopefully I’ll be the one to spearhead an all-powerful alliance that goes down in the annals of Big Brother History. 

I immediately make a beeline for Caleb as soon as we’re in the house, and much to my surprise, he immediately apologises for his behavior last season. “I’m so sorry for I treated you the last time we were on Big Brother together, I have no idea what I was thinking. What I did was completely inappropriate, and I’m really sorry that I completely ruined your entire experience. We’re both competition beasts, and hopefully this time around we’ll get the chance to properly work together.”  
And honestly, I’m kind of surprised. Considering how creepy and stalkerish he was last time, that was not what I expected at all, and given the maturity he’s shown by approaching me first, I could definitely see myself working with him this time around. “Thank you for your apology, Caleb. That meant a lot. I look forward to working together with you.” 

[McCrae] 

Whilst Amber and Caleb were having their awkward reunion moment, Amanda and I immediately made a beeline for the bedrooms. The house is far bigger compared to our season, and the beds - and the bedrooms are so much spacier. All of the walls have this grey stone brick pattern to them, and all of the beds having these intricate feet, and headboards - super old school. As we dumped our bags onto the bed, I shot a quick quip to Amanda, “We good?” She replied with a brisk nod. “We good.” Granted, we did have our differences after the game outside the house, but she is a player that respects the sanctity of the game, and I know she won’t use outside information to overtly sabotage me too much. 

[Sparky] 

Whilst the first 4 Houseguests are getting settled, let’s introduce everyone to the remaining 2 powerhouse duos returning to the Big Brother House. 

[Dani and Dom] *Writer’s note: Yes, I realise that the odds of both of them playing are very minimal since they have a daughter, but eh. Artistic license. Sue me. 

Hi America! I’m Dani. And I’m Dom. I previously played on Big Brother 8, 13 and the second All Stars Season…whereas I last played on Big Brother 13. Clearly Dani here is the much more popular player. [both laugh] I’m super excited to be back playing the game of Big Brother for the 4th time now, and I’m back here to do what I do best: play an incredibly smart strategic and social game, win competitions, and bring home the win. On the other hand, I’m just going to try and win some comps and not form an alliance that gets utterly annihilated pre-jury. Seriously. I just want to prove that I can play this game too. 

[Nicole and Victor]. 

I’m Nicole Franzel from Big Brother 16, 18 and the second All Stars Season. And I’m Victor, America’s Favourite Houseguest from Big Brother 18. Also, technically we’ve both entered the game 4 times. I’ve actually entered the house 5 times now. 5 times now? My god, America must love you as much as I do. Stop it! I won’t be able to look at you after I betray you. Why are you already talking about betraying me? Anyway, last time, I was a competition beast but made myself too big of a target, and didn’t try to have a strong social game with the rest of the house. This time, I’m going to combine competition wins and a strong social game to bring me across the finish line. Obviously, I’m going to use this guy as my meat shield. Hey! And draw attention away from myself to become the 1st 2 time winner of Big Brother. 

[Sparky.]

Nicole, Victor, Dani, Dom. The 4 of you, please enter the Big Brother House.

[Dani] 

So when I see Nicole is also playing this season, I’m immediately skeptical of working with her again. Somehow even in All Stars, she managed to sneak behind bigger targets such as myself as worm her way quite far in the game. Not sure if I’m looking to be burned by her again. Between her and Victor, I think the 2 of them would be a dangerous pair to further into the game. That being said, this is a completely different game, and both her and Victor are strong competitors; I could see myself pretending to make up and using them to get further in this game. New season, new game right? 

[Amanda]

After we’re all settled down and engaging in chit-chat, we hear some more voices at the door. And as step outside, we see the absolutely legendary Dani Briones in the living room. Hopefully I’ll be able to align myself with her this season; I think that she’d be an amazing person to work with, and would be loyal to our alliance throughout. 

[Sparky] 

Houseguests, could I have your attention please. Please gather in the living room. Whilst I’m sure that you are all very excited to get to know each other better, I have some important news to share. Thank you. Now, I’m pleased to inform everybody that the Head of Household competition will begin shortly. Please head over to the backyard. 

[Nicole] 

So after Sparky announces the first Head of Household competition, I’m immediately suspicious. There’s only 8 of us in the house right now; I don’t think that’s everyone playing in this season. So I’m definitely on the lookout for anything that’s out of the ordinary. 

[Sparky] 

This Head of Household competition is called the ‘Lucky 7 Shot’. In this competition, each houseguest will be attempting to use a slingshot to launch balls at targets in each of their lanes. Fortunately for all of you, any balls you shoot will roll back on the ramp in your line back to you. The first Houseguest to knock down all 7 of their targets will win the Power of Veto. Does everybody understand? Excellent. In that case, please get into position in each of your lanes, and the competition will begin at the sound of the klaxon. 

[Victor]

So once the competition starts, I start slotting these balls in the slingshot and just lobbing it as these targets as fast as I can. First thing I notice is that these balls are way lighter than I expected them to be – I guess if we accidentally shoot one in the direction of another houseguest it doesn’t turn out too badly. But that means I’m launching these balls way too far off and they’re completely missing the target. Secondly, the balls do roll back, but because of how light they are, they’re taking their time to roll back. Oops. Maybe I shouldn’t have been so aggressive with my shooting. 

[Caleb]

So it’s taken a couple of shots, but I’ve finally gotten the hang of shooting the balls, and now I’ve already managed to get 2 of them down. Since the balls don’t come back that fast, I’m being very careful with how I aim my shots. Whilst there is an argument to be made for not winning the first HoH, I feel that getting power early will put me in a position that allows me to make deals and build alliances with people in the rest of the house. And I don’t even have to seek them out, they’ll come to me instead. 

[Dani] 

So I’m going through this comp, and I realise it might not be in my best interest to win the first HoH off the bat. After all, as a 4th time returning player, everyone here has seen me play multiple times, and will probably be targeting me off the bat. Of course, I’m not trying to be too obvious about my throwing of this competition, so I’m aiming for the space between the targets so it looks like I’m just narrowly missing every time, knocking down a few targets but far enough behind those in the lead. Unlike Nicole of course, who can’t seem to hit anything for some reason. Besides, being HoH this week immediately disqualifies you from playing next week, so it might be better to wait and build some connections and relationships before seizing power. 

[Amanda] 

To my great surprise, I’m not doing too poorly in this competition. Caleb is currently in the lead with 5 targets down, but I’ve got 4 down right now, and so does Amber. Huh. Maybe this won’t be a complete repeat of last season. Suddenly I hear a bom, bom, bom in the lane next to me, and Dom has rocketed into the lead with 6 targets down. Crap! I better try and catch-up, but my shots are just barely missing, and the more frustrated I’m getting, the worse my aim is. Calm down Amanda, I tell myself when I hear…

“Congratulations Dom! You are the 1st Head of Household!” 

Well. I was hoping to work with Dani and Dom anyways. Maybe this will pan out well. 

[Dom] 

Woohoo! So I’m the 1st Head of Household for the summer, which guarantees mine and Dani’s safety for this week, which is huge. After the competition wraps up Victor pulls me aside and propositions that us two couples should probably stick together since they know we’ll be very tight within each of our pairs, and the other 4 Houseguests will probably be gunning for us first. Which honestly, doesn’t seem to be a terrible idea. I shoot back a quick “We’ll talk later,” not to give away that we’re strategizing too early in the game. Fortunately for us, once I’m in the HoH room we’ll have plenty of privacy to talk game. 

[Nicole] 

After the HoH competition, Vic and I get the chance to settle down; since the 1st room is already occupied by the 1st 4 Houseguests to enter, we end up bunking with Dani and Dom. Granted, I’m not enthused about it considering what happened on All Stars, but then Dom and Vic immediately discuss the possibility of working together. I glance over at Dani, who is trying to hide a grimace. Granted, I’m not thrilled about it either, but both Dani and Vic are competition beasts, and Dom just won HoH, so that’ll at least guarantee my safety for now. Dani then asks me, “This is a new season, right? Plenty of new ground to be broken. Let All Stars be All Stars, and let’s work together now?” I agree. For now. Besides, I could always get back at her later. 

[Sparky]

Now that the returning Houseguests are settled in, let’s meet our new houseguests, who are looking to shake up this season and give these veterans a run for their money. These 4 dynamic duos are familiar with working with each other, but will they be able to beat the experience of the returning players? 

[Dex and Sophie]

Hi Internet! My name is Sophie Elizabeth Foster and this is my best friend, Dexter Alvin Dizznee! Or Dex for short. We’re both high school students, and we both attend a magnet school for gifted students in San Diego. That’s right! Sophie here is amazing with languages, but she’s also very strong physically. On top of that, she has an amazing memory. I, on the other hand, love working with puzzles, numbers, and just technology of any kind. In other words, Dex works with computers, whereas I am the computer. And just because we’re the youngest competitors in Big Brother history doesn’t mean the rest of the competition should underestimate us. 

4 years ago, both of us were involved in a kidnapping gone wrong; Dex was severely injured but managed to get away in time for help. I ended up in a coma for multiple days but thanks to some great medical assistance, was very fortunately revived. Even so, both Sophie and I have multiple scars from where the injuries did permanent tissue damage that will never heal. Fortunately, the perpetrators were apprehended, but it’s given us both some perspective that kids our age normally wouldn’t have. We’re both very sociable people, and with our sharp wits we have a chance of winning competitions even over some of the adults. We’re both massive fans of the show, and hopefully it’ll give us the best chance of winning Big Brother! [Air fist pump]

[Leo and Calypso.]

Hello America, I’m Leo Valdez, and this is my wonderful, totally hot girlfriend Calypso, coming at you guys from Long Island. No last name, because she’s far too cool for that. About to be ex-girlfriend, I might add. What was that for? I called you totally hot. Anyway, we’re both massive superfans of Big Brother, and we’re incredibly excited to be participating this season. I’m a mechanic and an engineer, and I love solving problems and working things out. I’m not afraid to get down and dirty to get what I want. And as for me, I’m a massive fan of the outdoors: I love gardening, being one with nature, but also extreme sports. Rock climbing, sky diving, you name it. I’ve spent a lot of my life being cooped up in a very sheltered and secluded life, and I’ve taken the opportunity to go on an adventure and experience the world. 

With the physical prowess I’ve developed and my inherent competitive drive, I think that I could make it really far in this game. I may look like a sweet, innocent dumb blonde, but I bet the other houseguests will never see me coming. And while she’s off playing a devastating game and absolutely destroying everyone, I’m just going to sit here on the sidelines, watching and enjoying the show that’s panning out before me. Maybe make a new friend or two, who knows? Having met Calypso’s family, I know what it means to tread very carefully socially. Leo’s definitely not wrong there, I mean…Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are an absolute landmine. And technically they’re your family too, Leo - isn’t your grandfather technically my second or third cousin or something? …Please; let’s not go there.  
[Sparky] 

Leo, Calypso, Sophie, and Dex. I hope you’re all very excited. You may now enter the Big Brother House. 

[Victor] 

So we hear the doorbell ring, and obviously that’s signalling some new houseguests. And when we’re all waiting at the lobby, and the first houseguests come in, and they’re just little kids! I mean, they’re teenagers, but my god! They’re sending teenagers into the house to play with us? It’s going to be rough having to send them out. No mercy, Victor. Absolutely no mercy. 

[Dex] 

I walk through the door, everyone’s out there to greet us, and then I see Victor, and my inner fanboy is completely freaking out. I loved watching him back when I was in middle school, and it’s super surreal to get to play with him now. Who knows: hopefully I’ll get the chance to work with him this game. I think with my strategic gameplay coupled with his competition skills, we could become a pretty strong duo

[Calypso] 

I walk through the doors and I see Nicole, I see Dani, I see Amanda, and I’m ecstatic. They have brought back a cast of really competitive and strategic players this season, and hopefully we can once again have an all-female Final 2. I’m looking to bring some girl power this season, and all those guys had better watch out. 

[Sparky]

While the first 4 new Houseguests get acquainted with the returning Houseguests, let’s meet the final 4 Houseguests completing our cast this season. 

[Eddie and Buck]

Hi guys, my name is Evan, but most people call me Buck. [points] This is Eddie, and most people call him Eddie. I call him the rookie. [shoots a side glare] Seriously? It’s been years. But until someone new gets assigned to our station, you’re technically still the newest person. [Eddie audibly sighs]. Anyway, as you guys probably worked out by now, we’re both firefighters, proud members of the LAFD, Station 118. We are super glad to be able to come on Big Brother with the support of the entire station behind us. I’m sure they’ll all make plenty of gifs for posterity. [chuckles]. 

I have a son, Christopher, who’s a huge fan of the show, and constantly pointing out who are his favourite players, whom he doesn’t like, and so forth. More than anything, I’m unbelievably excited for my son to be able to watch me play this game on the TV and cheer me on from the living room. Although I’m sure he’ll be cheering louder for Buck. What can I say? Chris likes me the best. Though I think you might have better luck with the rest of the houseguests - I end up with my foot in my mouth a lot. Now that I can definitely attest to. Anyway, we figured that it’s very likely that we’re both going to be targeted as physical threats right from the get-go, so we’re going to have to play a fantastic social game right from the beginning. As firefighters, we’re used high pressure, incredibly stressful situations that require creative solutions, so hopefully our out-of-the-box thinking will help us in this game. Station 118, we’re going to bring this back home for you. 

[Ral and Tomik] 

Hello the internet! I’m Ral, and this is my wonderful, oh so sexy husband, Tomik, and we’re both super, duper excited to be Houseguests on this season of Big Brother! [unbelievably awkward silence]. Tomik, you’re supposed to back me up here. C’mon. I clearly settled when I married him. Though I suppose I could have done quite a bit worse. I’m a senior electrical engineer at Nivix Labs, and everyday at work I’m on the cutting edge of technological innovation, bringing striking new technology into the world all the time. I love to think - don’t think I could ever stop my brain from running at 100 km/h constantly - which I think makes me well-suited to play this game. After all, you always have to be on your feet. Contrary to what Ral does, I’m a partner at Karlov Law Firm, specialising in contract law, and I most certainly know my way around a deal or two. Although we’re 2 very different people, it somehow just works, and I couldn’t be more thankful. 

So why do we think we’re going to win Big Brother? We spend all day at our jobs having to think through incredibly complex situations, which, considering what we do in this game, probably gives us a leg up. Plus, while we may not be the most of approachable of people, I think we’ll be able to play a really strong social game and make deals and alliances with a lot of different people in the house. Speak for yourself. People love me. Just try not to alienate people too much; I don’t need anyone gunning for us in Week 1. Gosh. Hopefully not. Anyway, fellow Houseguests, you better watch out, cause the Zarek-Vronas aren’t leaving without the crown. Or you know, just try your best, Ral. I’m proud of you no matter what. 

[Sparky]

Buck, Eddie, Ral, Tomik. You may now enter the Big Brother House. 

[Eddie] 

So from the get-go, I’m already sure that at least one of my fellow Houseguests is going to be one to watch for sure - I mean, who opts for wearing a full suit with a pocket-watch and handkerchief when everyone else is going for casual wear with jeans and T-shirts. I’m not sure what exactly to expect, but I’m definitely going to keep an eye on him. So as we enter the house, I immediately see that we’re playing with at least some returning players because I recognize Nicole and Dani from All-Stars 2. While both of them are very strong players, I’m concerned about working with them because of how easily they’ve flipped on any deals or alliances. So if I do end up working with them, it’s going to be with one foot already out the door. 

[Sophie]

So we all rush to the door at the sound of the doorbell, and I see 4 adult guys walking through that door. So immediately I know us ladies are at a massive disadvantage being down 4 compared to the guys. In the past, many seasons have been dominated by a guys’ alliance just taking out all the girls in successive fashion. So hopefully, if all of us strong women stick together, we might have a chance of going far in this game. So after we all say our introductions to all the houseguests, I immediately pull aside the only other new female player, Calypso I think is how I pronounce her name, and propose to her an all-female alliance, which she immediately jumps on. Now we just need to find the right opportunity to clue in the rest of the girls. 

[Caleb] 

After we make introductions, I find myself clicking really well with the 2 firefighters, Eddie and Caleb. Obviously we’re all super physical, enjoy working out, and since everyone else is probably going to consider us as a physical threat right off the bat, I think it’d probably make sense for all of us to stick together. So after everyone disperses, I propose an alliance between the three of us, to which they happily agree. I think if I can find my ride-or-die people in this game and have them not betray me at the Final 4, I think this could be my season to take home. 

[Leo] 

So I see Ral through the door, and immediately I’m fanboying super hard. He is one of the most innovative scientists at Nivix Labs, and in the whole world to be honest – his research just comes completely out of left field. I’m absolutely shocked at the opportunity to be playing with a superstar such as himself. So immediately I’m following him to his room and am ready to bombard him with questions about his latest invention the hyper energy-efficient lightbulb when I see Dex moving to do the exact same thing. Guess I’m not the only fanboy. 

[Ral] 

So just minutes after I step into the house, I’m already being approached by two other houseguests. Granted, it was to talk about my work, which of course I’m more than happy to discuss - although I better be careful not to give away any proprietary information on live television, god, that one time - but I find myself really impressed by the depth of knowledge that they both have given how young they both are. I mean, not that either of them could beat me when I was their age, but still incredibly impressive. Checking to make sure that no one else is around - everyone else still appear to mingling outside - I then propose an alliance with the two of them, saying that with our intelligence and strategizing we can probably keep each other safe. So after some brief discussion, we decide on Hijack. So the rest of the house, you better get ready, because with our gameplay we are going to hijack your game and throw it into disarray. 

*Writer’s Note: I may enjoy writing, but I find myself to be an unbelievably uninspiring nor creative person. So if the alliance names or competitions seems unbelievably boring, it’s cause they are. XD 

[Tomik] 

After saying my friendly introductions to everyone, I pull Dani aside, and mention how that being couples, people are definitely going to think of each of our spouses as a pair, so it’s probably a good idea for us to work together to take out coasters, leave big targets and so forth. Considering what a beast of a player Dani is, it’s probably a good idea to keep myself aligned with her. 

[Dani]

So this Tomik guy approaches me about trying to form a couples’ appliance, and honestly, I’m not too sure about aligning with this person I just met moments ago. I mean, of course I agree to it initially, but I’m going to need to see how much I can trust this guy before we \cement our alliance. 

[Sparky] 

Houseguests, if you could all please gather in the living room. Thank you very much. So, as some of you may have worked out, the first 8 houseguests to enter the Big Brother House have already participated in a Head of Household competition, where Dom was crowned the Head of Household. I can now reveal to everyone that the 8 remaining Houseguests will participate in a 2nd Head of Household competition, where a 2nd HoH will be crowned. Everyone, please head over the backyard. 

[Buck] 

So as we all head out, my mind is racing through all the different possibilities of what could be happening. Are they maybe going to be co-HoHs? Are there going to be 2 HoHs the whole week? Either way, winning this Head of Household competition is the best way to guarantee my safety in this game. And then I see the puzzles. 

[Sparky] 

This Head of Household competition is called ‘Sliding Sections’. You each have a series of 3 sliding puzzles, each containing a colored block. You need to manoeuvre the colored block into the open slot and return it to your platform. The first Houseguest to free and return all 3 blocks to their platform will become the 2nd Head of Household. Does everybody understand? Excellent. And the competition begins now. 

[Eddie] 

So I’m thinking this is a sliding tile puzzle, I’ve done plenty of them as a kid, so this should be really easy, right? No. Turns out some of the blocks are fixed, so you have to take a more complicated route to free the block, and once I realise I have no idea which direction to move these blocks in, I realise it might be better to just give up. If I don’t win HoH, it won’t get any blood on my hands, and it might cause everyone to not perceive me as too big of a competition threat. So I’m honestly content to just throw this competition here. 

[Calpyso] 

“Dex has his first block out, and so does Ral.” So immediately I kick into high gear, just moving around these blocks as quickly as I can, trying to see if I can get any combination of moves to just free by sheer luck, but I keep getting stuck around the fixed blocks. We can’t have two guys win HoH this week otherwise any plan that we have of being able to stick a girls’ alliance will just fly out of the window. Suddenly, my coloured block comes free, and I dash to my platform, but I see Dex running neck to neck against me, and I know I’m going to need to step it up to pull this off. 

[Dex] 

So I was struggling a little with the first puzzle since I didn’t realise that some pieces couldn’t be moved, but once I calmed down and mapped it out in my head, it all became very straightforward. “Ral has his second piece out now. And now so does Leo.” I debated throwing the first HoH competition since I’m not sure that’s the best opening move for my game, but then I realise that the best way to guarantee I’m not the first one evicted is just to be safe for the week, no matter what. I know that my allies Ral and Leo are also doing really well, but I’m not sure where the alliance is going yet, so I need to be the one guaranteeing my own safety. I fiddle free the last block, run with all my might back, and slam the block on the platform. “Congratulations Dex, you are the 2nd Head of Household!” 

Who will Dex and Dom put on the block? What other twists is in store for the remaining Houseguests? Find out on the next chapter of Big Brother!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So that's Chapter 1! I will be reading all the comments of course for feedback on potential future seasons, so let me know if this is something you enjoyed reading, and of course how I could improve. :)


	2. Chapter 2 (Week 1)

[Dex] 

So I’m Head of Household this week, which means at least I won’t be the first person evicted, which is just the worst nightmare for any superfan like myself. On the other hand, Dom is also a Head of Household, and I’m not entirely sure what Big Brother has in store for the both of us. Will I need to compete against him to maintain my title? 

[Sparky] 

Houseguests, could you please gather in the living room. Thank you very much. Congratulations Dom and Dex on being crowned as the first Heads of Household. But in Big Brother, you always need to be ready to expect the unexpected, and by the end of the week, there will only be one Head of Household left. [audible sighs and gasps] This season, the Battle of the Block returns. Just to be clear: each Head of Household will nominate 2 Houseguests for eviction, and each pair of nominees will compete in the Battle of the Block Competition. The winning pair dethrones the Head of Household that nominated them and becomes immune from nomination for the rest of the week. The dethroned Head of Household can still be nominated if the Power of Veto is used and a replacement nominee is to be had. But that’s not all. 

[Dom] 

If me potentially losing my power and immunity this week wasn’t bad enough, there’s still more to be had? What on earth is going on right now?

[Sparky] 

As you all may have worked out, this season, we’re bringing powerful, dynamic duos back into this house. (Dani: You have GOT to be kidding. Again? Big Brother, why are you doing this to me?) So for the second twist of the season, we are bringing back the pairs twist. Each Houseguest will have a partner in this game, and you will be nominated, on the block, by the Heads of Household as a pair. If either one of you is immune for the week, you will both be safe. If your partner is evicted before the twist is over, you will receive a Golden Key, which prevents the Heads of Household from nominating you until the twist is over. Is that clear? Excellent. Now, you may have entered the house as duos, but you may not be playing as the duo you entered as moving forward. In front of all of you is a box; please go ahead and open it. Here, we have 16 colored sticks, eights pairs of 2. You will each pull a stick, and whoever has a color that matches you will become your partner for this twist. 

(For reader reference, the pairs are: 

Dex & Calypso  
Amber & Nicole  
Caleb & Eddie  
Leo & Victor  
Amanda & McCrae  
Buck & Dom  
Dani & Tomik  
Ral & Sophie.)

[Amanda]

Out of everyone, McCrae and I are the only pair who are stuck with their original partner, Which is awful, because as the entire world knows, McCrae’s game is not having any game. And as we saw last time the pairs twist was in play, your safety is so intrinsically tied to your partner’s competency. Or in this case, incompetency. Hopefully, we can just do what we did in Season 15 and just stay under the radar, riding out this twist until it’s over. 

[Caleb] 

So this pairs twists is probably the worst possible thing that could happen to my game right now because it ends up pitting the people in each pair up against each other, and I had just allied with Eddie and Buck. And since there are 2 massive physical threats in 1 pair, I suspect that people are going to be putting us on the block as often as they possibly plan. So right now, I plan to form relationships with everyone in the house, so that in the case that I am up on the block, to make sure that I’m not the one getting evicted. I like the guy, but if it comes down to it, I’d rather him go home than me. 

[Dom] 

So this new pairs twist completely changes the way I’m going to go about nominations because I might be putting someone whom I’m allied with up at risk if I do go ahead and put up a pair. And of course, I need to make sure that I’m in good standing with Dex this week so I’m guaranteed not to get backdoored. These twists just added a lot of moving parts to this game now that I have to keep track of. 

[Dex] 

So shortly after the twists are announced, Dom and I get handed the keys to our HoH rooms, which is super neat. There are 2 separate entrances, each of which leads to 1 of the rooms, and there’s like a sliding door between the two rooms so that we have some privacy. But most importantly, my basket of comfort items! There are some pictures of the triplets, of Mom and Dad, but also a couple of me and Sophie and Iggy - Soph is going to love those. And of course, how could they not have it, they have some of my favourite pastries: Indigoobers, Mallowmelt, just one giant sugar fest. While I am super excited to see all this, I need to keep focused, and leverage the power of this HoH the best that I can. Although Sophie and I entered this game as a pair, we’re still playing this game as individuals, and with the power I currently have, I’m going to try and cultivate as many as relationships as possible. 

[Victor]

This might come back to bite me later, but I really don’t want to go up against Leo. At least from what I remember, each member of the pair tends to be in an opposing alliance because it’s really easily to be targeted if you guys are a pair alliance-wise as well. Having said that, he’s a really likeable guy, I think I’m a really likeable guy, and I think I’d rather work with him. So after talking to Leo and making sure that we’re solid, I proposed going up to talk to Dom and just making sure that we’re safe this week. 

[Leo] 

So Victor comes to me with the idea of making a trio alliance with Dom, and I’m all for it. From what I’ve gotten to know of him so far, I would totally be down for working together. So we go upstairs and hammer out our alliance. I think this early in the game, Dom will stay true to our alliance, and Victor and I will be safe this week. I guess one other consideration is that Victor and Dom are clearly far bigger physical threats than I am, so even if our alliance is blown up, I think they’ll still be taken out before me, which is great. 

[Nicole] 

So Sophie approaches me about forming an all girls’ alliance with her and Calypso, and that she wants to bring the rest of the girls onboard as well. After all, this season there are 4 fewer girls than guys, so it’s super important that we all stick together. Victor and I have this couples’ alliance with Dani and Dom, so I should be safe this week on that side. I know Sophie is close with Dex, so if I work with her, I should be able to cover my bases there as well. So I get Dani, and we all meet in one of the many empty rooms - with couches - scattered throughout the house. I don’t know why this season there are so many rooms in the house, but this is perfect for talking to groups of people without everyone butting in. And there, we solidify our alliance. Now let’s take these guys out. 

[Dani]

Considering what happened on All-Stars, I’m shocked that Nicole wants to work so closely with me, but I’m fine with that. She’s a former winner and can act as a buffer for me. Once we’ve formed our all girls’ alliance, we start strategizing and clearly, the biggest threat right now in the house to our alliance is the pair of Eddie and Caleb; they’re not associated with any of us and they’re clearly the biggest pair of physical threats in the house. I proclaim that I’ll try and steer Dom in the direction of nominating them, and we disperse, with the idea of getting everyone else on board with that plan. After our meeting, however, I clue Nicole into working together with Ral and Tomik as well as part of the couples’ alliance, which she is absolutely on board with. Keep your friends close, keep your enemies closer, right? Nicole has proven herself to be a very strategic and social player, and I need to keep a close eye on her even if I’m in multiple alliances with her. However, I haven’t checked in with Dex yet this game so far, so I need to go upstairs and make sure that Tomik and I aren’t going on the block. I think I’ll be fine stringing Nicole along for a few weeks, but I can’t see myself working with her in the long-term again. 

[Sophie]

I know that I just made this girls’ alliance with Calypso, but I think that it wouldn’t hurt to put out some feelers throughout the rest of the house. Dex is the HoH this week, and I know, at least this early, he’s probably going to work to try and keep Ral and I off the block. Knowing Dex, he’s probably already aligned with Ral 5 minutes after entering this house, so I’m not too worried about that right now. I just need to check in with everyone that neither Dex nor I are probably aligned with right now.

[Buck]

So I’m just casually getting some snacks from the pantry, and Sophie comes in saying that she wants to talk. She’s wanting to work together with Eddie and I and thinks that we’ll be able to keep our partnership under the radar because no one would suspect it. She then mentions that she overheard Dani and Nicole shifting the target to Eddie and Caleb this week, whom she figures I would be working with - and she’s right, of course. I of course agree to our alliance at that point, but I’m not fully committed to it, because it’s very clear to me how smart Sophie is, and how there’s a good chance that we’ll all end up underestimating her, so I don't think the house can let her get too far into this game. We talk a little bit about who we’d consider targeting - she brings up Amanda and McCrae for having not really talked game with either of us yet, but I don’t think that they’re too much of a threat at this point in the game, considering the other vets in this house I propose trying to go after Nicole or Dani whom I definitely believe to be strong physical and strategic threats in the game. After all, Nicole won. We both agree that we want to make sure that a rookie wins the season, and puts all these veterans in their place. 

[Eddie] 

As I’m in the kitchen getting some iced tea, Buck mentions to me that Dani, and therefore by extension, Dom has the target pointed squarely at Caleb and I, which is just awful. Hence, I immediately go upstairs and find Dom, and we have a chat about whether he’s considering targeting me, and who he’s putting on the block. He says he’s not quite sure right now, which raises a lot of red flags for me. He asks me who I’d consider putting up, and I tell him that McCrae and Victor have both proven themselves to be competition threats, so they would be worth considering. So right now, my strategy is that if I do get nominated, that I have the votes to keep myself over Caleb. After talking with Dom, I go and find Tomik and Ral, who are both resting in the bedroom we’re sharing right now, and just to make sure that I’m square and cool with both of them. They said they’d both vote to keep me in the house over Caleb for sure if it comes down to it, so hopefully, they stick to their word. 

[McCrae] 

On this season, I’ve promised myself that I would be more strategic and seek out various alliances, but so far nobody has approached me with anything. I guess they’re figuring me to be the same McCrae as the last time I played, but this time I’m going to try and maintain my safety where possible. I go up to Dom and Dex in the HoH room, and whilst they don’t appear to be particularly interested in working with me at this point with their fairly evasive language, they at least give me the pretty sincere reassurance that I’m not their target this week. This is probably fine: just lay low, let the big threats in the game take each other out - and there are definitely a lot of them this season - and come in from behind and swoop up the victory. 

[Tomik] 

I’m clueing in Ral to the couples’ alliance that I’ve formed with Dani, Dom, Nicole and Victor, and Ral’s clueing me in the alliance he’s formed with Victor and Dex. That means between us, we can keep the target pointed away from us this week. Our next move is to start making deals and relationships with the rest of the house when suddenly Eddie comes into the room and starts asking us where our head is at if they’d be open to us working together, and so forth. Just from his demeanour alone, I can tell that he’s suspecting that he’s going to be a target and now he’s scrambling to try and make sure he has the votes to stay in the house, which is an impressive bit of foresight from him. We say that we’re voting to keep him, but honestly? Eddie is an extremely likeable person, and I feel that the bonds he’s going to build with people are going to carry him far in this game if we don’t take him out early. 

[Amber] 

I’ve pulled Caleb and Nicole aside already, and we’ve already formed the Season 16 alliance to go far together in this game – whilst there’s the all-girls alliance that we’ve formed, there’s a lot of big personalities, and I don’t feel that I can trust them just as much. However, I don’t have a Number 1 already set for me going into this game like a lot of the other duos, and neither Dom nor Dex has approached me for any game-related talk, which has my alarm bells ringing. I go up to Dex’s HoH room, and say that whilst we haven’t talked much, he should know that there’s probably bigger fish to fry than Nicole and I right now, and he says he’ll consider it, which is terrible news. Being paired up with Nicole has sunk my game a tad, particularly since we were working together beforehand, and I’m not entirely sure what I can do about that. 

[Dex]

So after having had the opportunity to check in with my allies, get all of their opinions, I finally have the chance to sit down and talk to Dom. I suspect that Leo is already working with Dom, which is great since I don’t have to show my cards by trying to bail out him and Ral. We definitely first agree not to backdoor each other regardless of who remains HoH. And honestly, even if I had the chance to, I wouldn’t: having watched his original season, I don’t consider Dom to be a pressing social threat, at least when there are so many more much more game-defining threats. He brings up the idea of putting Eddie and Caleb on the block, which I was considering as well, but I don’t know if it’s a better idea to attempt to backdoor them instead since they’re definitely strong physical threats and can easily pull themselves off the block. 

I then proffer putting up Amanda and McCrae as people whom I haven’t really talked to at this point – McCrae approached me, but our entire conversation felt very passive - but we’re definitely concerned they wouldn’t be able to beat Eddie and Caleb in the Battle of the Block in the game, and frankly, neither of them are high on my list. I put forward the idea of putting up Amber and Nicole, with the main target being Nicole. Regardless of how she plays: with a showmance, with a large alliance, she’s unbelievably effective at hiding behind bigger threats, so I can’t allow her to get too deep into this game. Dom noticeably balks at the idea of putting her up, even if he is trying to hide it, so I can definitely work out the two of them are working together. Ultimately, we ponder who else would be able to beat Eddie and Caleb in the Battle of the Block – the only other pair in our minds would be Victor and Leo, but we both immediately agree that would be an awful idea – so Amber and Nicole it is. 

[Dom]

“This is the Nomination Ceremony. Dex and I, as Heads of Household, have the responsibility of nominating a pair of nominees for eviction. Buck and Calypso, as the members of each of our pairs, you are both safe from eviction. By random draw: I will make my nominations first. … I have nominated you, Eddie, and you, Caleb, for eviction. You guys are both very strong physical threats. Please understand that I think both of you are great people and that this is purely a game move.” 

“…I have nominated you, Amber, and you, Nicole, for eviction. This is also purely a game move; you’re both strong social and physical threats, and I wish you both the best of luck in getting yourselves off the block.”

[Caleb] 

Big surprise, I mean, in the most predictable game move ever, Dom nominates Eddie and I. Unfortunately for him, he gave us the chance to compete in both the Battle of the Block and the Veto competition. The two of us are going to win, pull ourselves off, and Dom, you better watch out, cause next week we’re coming for you. 

[Nicole] 

I’m kind of surprised that Dex nominated Amber and I; I didn’t expect to be anybody’s target this early in the game. I guess that’s my bad for not really talking to him this game so far – I thought Sophie would have dissuaded him, but I guess they’re not as close as we thought - and I know I have a reputation that precedes me, especially to someone who claims to be a superfan. If Amber and I can’t beat the buff bros in the Battle of the Block, at least right now, I feel like I should be able to get the votes to stay since Amber only has Caleb in this game other than myself, of course. Don’t think I’m going to forget this though Dex. 

[Dom] 

I’m not sure if nominating Eddie and Caleb was the correct move; maybe I should have attempted to backdoor them instead. But this season, I came into this house to make big moves, and I’m going after the biggest targets right from the get-go. 

[Dani]

I wish Dom had talked a little more with me before he made those nominations because going after the two biggest competition threats from the very beginning isn’t a great idea – I think he’s should have probably played it safe and nominated the rookie pair of Ral and Sophie, and not make too many waves. At least one of them is going to stay and have the target pointed squarely at us, which means we won’t be able to lay low at all. 

Who will win the Battle of the Block: Eddie and Caleb, or Nicole and Amber? And what new twists await the houseguests? Find out on the next chapter of Big Brother!


	3. Chapter 3 (Week 1)

[Calypso] 

Right now, I feel pretty good about this game: I’ve got a strong female power alliance, and my partner is HoH right now. However, in Big Brother, it’s when you feel the safest that you end up getting evicted, so I’ve got to be sure to cover all my bases. I check in with Leo to make sure that he’s talking to both Dom and Dex, and I tell him that I’m talking to the rest of the girls to keep his name out of the picture. Right now, Eddie and Caleb, our alliance’s targets are both on the block, so I’ll wait for them to come to me so that I have more leverage to make deals with. 

[Amber] 

I’m getting a horrifyingly familiar sense of déjà vu where I kept being put up on the block over and over again, as was the case my previous season. Granted, with both Nicole and I being returning players, Dex has had the opportunity to witness our previous seasons and probably came into this game with some assumptions in mind. However, I’m going to fight my hardest to win this Battle of the Block and pull Nicole and I off the block; that way, we hopefully can work together moving forward and develop this Season 16 alliance. Whilst he has made it clear to me that Eddie and Caleb are both his and Dom’s targets for this week and that he’s putting up another pair that he believes will be able to beat them in the Battle of the Block, I’m still not entirely convinced. I won’t take any chances until I’m safe for the week. 

[Amanda] 

Fortunately, I managed to lay low enough, and establish a decent enough rapport with both Dom and Dex to convince them I’m not a threat right now in this game, and why would I be? I’m feeling pretty comfortable with the all girl’s alliance right now, but just to manage my social relationships, I head over to Caleb following the nominations to say that I think it would be beneficial for us to work together and that I would be a vote to keep him in the house. Out of all the Houseguests, I think that Caleb would be a very strong competitor down the line, and in case he does survive and win HoH next week, I want to be out of his crosshairs. 

[Ral]

Up in the HoH room, Leo clues in Dex and I that Calypso told him there’s a girl’s power alliance brewing, and they’re currently going after Eddie and Caleb, as I’m guessing is pretty much everyone else. Dex then chimes in that Sophie has also mentioned this girl’s alliance to him as well, not that they’re keeping it under wraps particularly well considering how frequently they are talking to each other. The fact that there is an all girls’ alliance mildly worries me as they should be able to gather the votes to take anyone they want out; however, considering that I’m currently in an alliance with Nicole and Dani, they’ll probably keep my name out of the picture. I consider trying to form additional alliances, but I don’t want to be in the position of writing too many checks that I simply can’t cash, and instead am content to stick with the loyal allies I have, at least for now. Dex proposes bringing in Sophie into our alliance who can act as a mole in the girls’ alliance, which I appear very happy about, but of course, I’m thinking that since she is my block partner, it wouldn’t work out well to work with her in the long term. Following this, I go to Tomik and fill him in on everything, just to make sure that he’s completely clued in; he tells me that he’ll keep his ear to the ground and feedback to me anything he hears as well. 

[Caleb] 

Tomik, of all people, approaches me in the pantry that he heard from Ral that there was an all girls’ alliance responsible for putting myself and Eddie on the block. He then proposes that we guys band together and align to get the votes to take out whomever we want and effectively oppose this girls’ alliance. He is thinking of including Eddie, Buck and McCrae in the alliance; When I ask why he isn’t including Ral, he then rolls his eyes and says Ral’s blabbermouth tendencies is blowing up his game. Like in this very instance by telling him about this alliance, to which I could only agree. I ask him who he’s thinking of taking out, and he proposes either Dani or Nicole, both 4-time veterans of this game. And even if he’s put up on the block next to Dani, he says that the house should see Dani as the bigger threat. 

[Tomik]

I mean, I am sort of in an alliance with Dani and Nicole, and I want them to think that I am loyal to that alliance so that they’ll keep me safe, but at the same time, I’ve had the opportunity to watch both of them play previously. They’re both massive threats in this game, and if they make it to the jury phase, they will completely take over this game. Right now, I’m making sure to form alliances all over the house to make sure that I’m always safe, regardless of who’s in power. Considering this is a game that has competitions that tend to favour the guys, especially the strong, athletic ones, making sure I’m in their good books is crucial. 

[McCrae] 

Tomik comes over to me, and bringing in Eddie, Caleb and Buck we’ve formed the Crusaders alliance. Though strangely, we’re aligning with both Eddie and Caleb, Tomik appears to have confidence that they’ll be able to beat Nicole and Amber in the upcoming Battle of the Block, which is rather optimistic of him. Having said that, he’s including me here, so I’m content to just roll with it. Whilst Tomik is considering Dani and Nicole as targets, I bring up the possibility of trying to take out Sophie. Whilst I haven’t heard much about her from anyone else, I suspect that we’re all underestimating her due to her. She’s extremely intelligent, just from the few conversations I’ve had with her, and could be a huge threat to our games down the road. If the veto does get used, we collectively agree that it could be an option to try and get the remaining Head of Household to execute the backdoor. 

[Buck]

“Everyone please gather in the backyard; it’s time for the very first Battle of the Block competition! Dex’s nominees will battle Dom’s nominees to remove themselves from the block and dethrone the Head of Household who nominated them. 

This competition is called ‘Easy Pickings’. Each houseguest will be supporting these wooden cylinders with giant chopsticks on either side and transport these wooden cylinders through this maze and into the box at the end. If you drop the cylinder at any point, it is considered out of play. The first team to move 3 cylinders into their box wins the Battle of the Block. Are both teams ready? This competition begins…NOW!”

[Caleb] 

So we immediately realise that this competition is way harder than we both thought. The chopsticks have a very small point of contact with the cylinder, which means that even the slightest slip-up will cause us to drop it. We must have dropped maybe 10 cylinders before we were finally able to clamp a cylinder between the chopsticks. Now to the problem of actually trying to move the cylinder through the maze, which has a very obvious path, but is filled with curves and turns that make it unbelievably hard to be level with each other. We must have been half an hour in, and we still haven’t reached the half-way point of the maze with our first barrel, and I think at this point, both Eddie and I were starting to get extremely frustrated. 

[Nicole] 

This competition is a lot tougher than I thought, but after a while we’re starting to find our rhythm: since Amber’s a fair bit taller than me, she has had to squat down this entire time, which must be absolutely killing her knees and back. Thank goodness she’s a strong physical competitor. I think the key to this competition was just communication at all times: to talk about where your chopstick was position on the cylinder, to make sure that we’re moving in unison. I initially thought that we weren’t doing very well, but hearing the constant clattering from the other side they were struggling just as much, if not more than we were. Fortunately, after some incredibly repetitive trial and error, we finally managed to manoeuvre our very first cylinder in the box. 

[Eddie] 

“Nicole and Amber has their first cylinder!” and I know, at this point, we’ve got to hurry and play catch-up. But I’m not sure if it’s my nerves, if it’s the stakes of the competition getting to me, or if it’s just the exhaustion, but my hands can’t seem to stop shaking, and I keep just letting go of the cylinder over and over again. I’ve been in high-intensity and stressful situations numerous times in my line of work, but not having the support of my whole team behind me is throwing my game off. I just feel really bad for Caleb right now, knowing that this is not a challenge you can do by yourself, and I’m completely letting him down right now. And then Amber and Nicole get their second cylinder. 

[Amber] 

So after we managed to get the first cylinder in, it just became a simple matter of repeating what we had just done twice more, which was much easier once Nicole and I found the rhythm with each other. And once we got our second cylinder in, we knew that we were very quickly pulling ahead when they hadn’t even gotten their first. My legs and back were aching from having to squat for so long, but I could see the light at the end of the tunnel. “Congratulations Nicole and Amber, you have won the Battle of the Block!” I drop my chopstick with a clatter and move to hug Nicole; I’m just so, so relieved that I’m not going to be the 1st Houseguest going home this season, which would be mortifying. And Dex better watch his back come next week: don’t think I’m going to forget this. 

[Dex] 

I’ve been dethroned as Head of Household, as made very apparent by the deluge of wet, sticky, and slimy noodles that are being poured over my head right now. However, I don’t feel terrible about my position in the game despite this; I have the deal with Dom right now to guarantee my own safety even after the Power of Veto competition, which I don’t think he’ll break, and I’ve got a pretty good alliance going with Ral and Leo. That being said, I need to start building relationships with other people in case Hijack gets hijacked ourselves. 

[Dom] 

So Dex has been dethroned, which not only guarantees my safety for the week, but has also left my targets on the block, which is fantastic. Now, Plan A is to win the Veto or have someone I’m aligned with win the Veto, keep nominations intact, and send one of them packing. That being said, despite a poor showing today, they are both very strong competitors, and there’s a chance that they win the Veto; as a result, I have to start considering who I’m looking to nominate as the replacement pair should that be the case. Either way, being the sole Head of Household, I hold all the cards this week and am ready to make a big move right out the gate. As we’re all recovering from the intense Battle of the Block, we suddenly get a call from Sparky to gather in the living room. 

[Sparky] 

“Good evening Houseguests. As you have just witnessed, the conclusion of the Battle of the Block has resulted in only 2 nominees remaining, with the winning pair, and the Head of the Household and their partner being safe for eviction for this week. But the rest of you, don’t go feeling too safe quite just yet. There will soon be a 3rd nominee on the block. (murmured whispers ripple throughout the Houseguests) That’s correct: this summer, the BB Roadkill will be returning, and the winner of the Roadkill competition will be able to secretly nominate a 3rd nominee on the block, even if they have a Golden Key. However, if the Roadkill nominee or your partner subsequently become safe for this week, then you will be removed from the block, and the Roadkill winner will have to select a different nominee. The Roadkill competition will be taking place later today; good luck Houseguests.”

[Leo] 

This twist is massive. Even though I’ve built a really good relationship with the Head of Household, and it’s really unlikely that they’re going to nominate me, the Roadkill winner might be someone with whom I haven’t talked a lot with yet, so this twist means that yoy need to be in good standing with the entire house to avoid getting nominated at any point. That means there’s a lot of work I need to start doing to avoid becoming the 3rd nominee. 

[Caleb] 

After the Battle of the Block competition, I go seek out Nicole and Amber and we all cheer together. We’ve got the Season 16 bond that no other alliance has, and I’m confident that we’ll end up loyal to each other throughout the game. Now that only one of us is left on the block and the two of them are safe for the rest of the week, we should have the votes to keep me in the house no matter who ends up as the Roadkill nominee. 

[Amber] 

Nicole and Caleb don’t know that I had already agreed with Eddie to try and keep him in the house as well, but I think that both of them will be discreet enough not to get my wires crossed and blab to the other Houseguests. Hopefully, the Roadkill winner nominates someone I’m not currently aligned with, and then I can just vote to evict them instead, and still have technically kept my word to everyone. 

[Sophie] 

In a few hours, we all take turns heading out into the backyard into this dinky looking RV. “This competition is called Mixing Maths. There is an assortment of number digit cards scattered throughout the RV, and there are three equations that you need to solve using the digits you have. There is only one correct combination that will correctly solve all 3 equations; once you think you have the correct answer, buzz in and your time will stop.” So when the buzzer goes, indicating the start of the competition, I’m just gathering all the number cards that I can see and just trying to fit in the cards where I can. I’m quickly realizing that even though I can easily make 2 equations work, there’s no way to rearrange the last one so that it fits, which is incredibly frustrating. 

[Ral]

So I look at the competition, and I’m incredibly ecstatic. It’s math! It’s literally just math! So I gather all the numbers and take a very quick look at the numbers. I see 3 1s and 2 9s, and there's only 11 digits total, so I’m immediately thinking I’m working with fairly small numbers. I start by trying to put the 9s by themselves, and that seemed to be the way it pans out. I quickly fill in the other numbers and slam that buzzer. I hope I made it in a fast enough time to win the competition. 

(For your reference, the equations are:   
3 * 6 = 18  
11 - 2 = 9  
4 + 5 = 9)

[Tomik] 

So I’m called into the Diary Room, and it takes all of my willpower not to just scream when I see the envelope marked ‘Roadkill Winner’. “Congratulations Tomik, you are the winner of the Roadkill competition and have won the power to secretly nominate a 3rd Houseguest for eviction.” I can’t even imagine Ral’s face if I told him I swiped this competition from right under his nose - if I ever tell him. Right now, even though I just formed the Crusaders alliance with most of the guys in the house, I don’t have a ‘ride-or-die’ with anyone just yet other than Ral, so I don’t know whom I can share this with. I really do want to stick with Ral throughout this game, but I’m holding my cards close to my chest to avoid them blowing up in my face. For right now, I’m going to keep this victory to myself and think of what move most benefits my game. 

[Dani] 

So right now, I’m checking in with the members of both of my alliances, and none of them appears to have heard any news about who may be the possible Roadkill winner. This means that probably Eddie, Caleb or Buck has won the Roadkill competition, which puts me in a really tough position. I suspect that they’re going to want to put a big target up on the block to draw votes away from them, and with Nicole safe for the rest of the week, I suspect that they’re going to nominate another long-time veteran, for instance, myself. 

Who will Tomik nominate as the third nominee? And who will win the Power of Veto? Find out all of this in the next chapter of Big Brother!


	4. Chapter 4 (Week 1)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry that this is a day late; was particularly busy yesterday. Hope you still enjoy! ^-^

[Dom] 

“Everybody, it’s time to pick Houseguests for the Power of Veto competition. Please gather in the living room. …Let’s see who the Roadkill winner has nominated for eviction.” And when Dani’s portrait shows up on that TV screen, I am floored. Dani is one of the strongest players to ever play this game, so it could really be anyone who’s thinking of her as a threat and put her up. You never know if what people are telling you is true. Regardless, Dani is a competition, and particularly a veto beast, so hopefully, she’ll be able to pull herself off the block. There’s no way I’m going to allow her to go home during my Head of Household reign. 

“The Head of Household and the three nominees will all be playing in the Power of Veto competition; I will now draw the remaining 2 players who will be playing in this competition. The 5th Houseguest to play is…Sophie, and the last Houseguest to play is…Leo. Big Brother will inform us when the competition is ready; good luck.”

[Sophie] 

Getting to play in the Veto is sort of a double-edged sword. On the one hand, if I do win the Veto, it’ll guarantee my and Ral’s safety from being evicted this week; on the other hand, if I do win the veto, both Dani and Eddie are going to want me to use the veto to save them, and whichever way I go will end up showing my cards a little too much. Here, it might actually be best to throw the Veto and rely on the rest of my social relationships to keep myself safe; of course, I can’t be too obvious about throwing it, but if it’s a physical competition, it shouldn’t be too hard of a sell. 

[Amanda]

Fortunately, I’m not picked to play in the Veto so I can continue to lay low for the rest of the week. Out of everyone playing in the Veto, the only person whom I’m not sure how they’ll act is Leo. After the players have been announced, I head over to talk to him just to see where his head is at and just casually mention that Eddie is probably a bigger threat right now than Dani just because we’re not sure how he plays on top of being a ridiculous physical threat. Unfortunately, the response I got from him wasn’t particularly good, so I’m still rather left in the dark. 

[Leo]

When Amanda comes to talk to me to try and use the veto on Dani should I win it, I immediately work out that the 2 of them are working together, but from my non-committal response of saying I’ll see what happens, she could probably work out that I’m not really interested in doing so. This backs up Sophie’s information that there may be an all-girls alliance brewing right underneath our noses. I have no idea who did nominate Dani, but I’m guessing it’s either Victor or Dex, putting up another big threat in the game so we have our pick of whom we want to take out. With Dom as the sole Head of Household, Victor and I should be relatively safe, so the ball’s definitely in our alliance’s court as to which big threat we’ll be evicting from the house this week. 

[Dani]

Right now, I’m very angry at either Eddie, Caleb or Buck - not quite sure who - for nominating me, but I just need to focus on winning the Power of Veto to remove myself and take out one of them this week. I’ve got this. Fortunately, Sophie is also playing in this, so that’s another person I probably have playing for me in this PoV competition. 

[Tomik] 

Right now, I think Dani is completely sold that it’s one of the other guys who put her up on the block, and I don’t think she’s got any clue that it’s actually me who put her up. There was some internal deliberation, but Dani is an incredibly strong veteran player, and with Nicole safe for this week, realistically she’s the only other ‘good’ option to put up. I may be tentatively working with them now, and I’d love for the rest of them to keep me safe, but I don’t trust any of them for a moment. After the nomination ceremony, I even told her to win the Veto and pull herself off the block, just to completely sell the act. Of course, if she does manage to pull herself off the block, I’ll probably put up either Amanda or Calypso, both of whom I have no ties with in this game thus far and whom are also probably working with Dani. Let’s see how this goes. 

[McCrae] 

“Houseguests! Please head on over to the backyard for the Power of Veto competition. In this competition, each houseguest will be holding on to a hanger, suspending themselves off the ground as the central machine spins around. If you let go of your hanger, you will be eliminated. The last person hanging on will win the Power of Veto. Who’s ready to play ‘Leave Me Hanging?’” 

[Sophie] 

I’m super, super happy that this is a physical challenge because I don’t think that I’ll even need to try particularly hard to throw this competition; the moment I grab onto the hanger and dangle myself off it, I already know that I’m not going to last particularly long. Once the machine starts moving, I start flailing around with the movement of the machine, and I’m trying to stabilise myself and hang on to minimal success. “Oh, and Dom is the first to fall off! And there goes Leo!” I bump into the side of the machine which completely disrupts any stabilising efforts I had, and I slip. “And there goes Sophie! Less than a minute into this competition and already 3 people are out!” 

[Dani] 

So when both Dom and Sophie fall just seconds into the competition, I know that I have to win this competition to keep myself safe this week; though I may be up against 2 incredibly physically strong guys, I still definitely have faith in my ability to pull off this win. I just need to hold on to the hanger for absolute dear life, and just completely refuse to let go. I categorically refuse to be the first Houseguest going home. As the competition progresses past the first few minutes, it’s becoming much more difficult to hold on than I was expecting; there is no place to really grip on these hangers other than just wrap one’s hands around it, and the hanger is purposely designed to be unbelievably smooth and slippery. I hear a loud thud and “Caleb, you’ve been eliminated from the competition.” That means that I only have to outlast Eddie to win this. 

I take a quick glance over and I can see that he’s barely struggling - comes with being a firefighter, I suppose - but I know that I’m going to be here for quite a while if I want to win. Unfortunately, I can already feel my fingers slipping from the sweat against the slick metal bar, and I’m going to need a complete miracle to be able to pull this one off. I try and readjust my grip to try and hold on longer, but I lose control and immediately slide off. “Congratulations Eddie, you have won the Golden Power of Veto!” I’m devastated: that single lapse means that I’m still going to be on the block, and I’m going to have to strategize and campaign as much as I can to keep myself safe this week. Besides, our primary targets are safe, so I need Dom to put people on the block that will ensure my safety this week. 

[Eddie]

This is the most amazing feeling! I just won the Power of Veto, which means Caleb and I are safe and we’ll live to fight another week and hopefully win the Head of Household next week. Watch out Dom, we’re going to send Dani packing this week, and you’re going to follow suit next week. 

[Dom] 

This is a complete disaster. I’m the first person to fall in this Power of Veto, which is already pretty embarrassing, but on top of that, not only did Dani not win, which means she’s still on the block and in a very vulnerable position this week, and Eddie won, which means I have to put up 2 new people on the block and get even more blood on my hands. Right now, I’m not sure who I should put on the block at all. I don’t want to have to backdoor Dex this week, but I don’t know if I even have any other options at this point. 

[Tomik] 

Fortunately, Dani did not win the Power of Veto, and 2 of my alliance members are now safe for the week. Now, we just need to collectively pressure Dom to put 2 pawns up under the guise that people will want to keep threats in the house to act as shields for themselves, and then send his wife home. 

[Victor] 

So after the Power of Veto competition wraps up, I head upstairs to the HoH room to strategize with Dom as to who he should put up, and there really aren’t a lot of options. Probably the best target for my game is to nominate Dex and Calypso since we’re both working with Ral right now, and I’d definitely consider them to be bigger threats than Amanda and McCrae. However, knowing Dom, he probably made a deal with Dex to guarantee each other’s safety regardless of who got dethroned as Head of Household, and I’m not sure if he wants to go back on his word this early in the game. Plus, I’m sure Leo would have plenty of objections to his girlfriend going up on the block this week and possibly being evicted. Therefore, I propose Amanda and McCrae as the replacement nominees, who, being massive threats that got aggressively targeted in their first season, are doing a pretty good job of laying fairly low this season thus far. That being said, I don’t think he really bought my argument, but I think it might be his only game move going forward. 

[Dani] 

Since Eddie is obviously going to pull himself off the block, Dom needs to put up someone who’s clearly a bigger threat in the game, and out of the remaining options, clearly the biggest threat in the game is Victor, so I head over to the Head of Household room, but just as I’m walking up, I see Victor walk out of the room, which spells trouble. We’re in an alliance with Victor and Nicole, of course, but we’ve got to do what we need to keep me safe in the game. The two of them have been talking together a lot as of late, so I don’t know how far Victor has already gotten into Dom’s had. I go inside to tell Dom that he has to put up Victor and Leo this week, regardless of what deals that Victor has made. Dom then tells me that Victor has promised a Final 3 deal with him and Leo, so it’d be in his best interest to not nominate him. I tell him that he can’t trust Victor’s word in this game, especially when he’s working with Nicole. I love my husband, but I need to make sure that he’s not going to blow up my game.

[Sparky] 

Houseguests, if you could please gather in the living room. Thank you very much. Before we get to the Veto ceremony, I’d just like to announce one more twist for this season. That’s right, just when you didn’t think that there could be any more twists and turns to this game, here is another one. This is the Tiny Trinket twist: every week, 1 Houseguest will publicly receive a special power to use and impact the game. No Houseguest may receive a Tiny Trinket twice. Use this power carefully as it may end up backfiring against you.

This week, the winner of the Tiny Trinket is Calypso, and you have received the power to remove one of the eviction votes after they have been cast on eviction night. Good luck. 

[Calypso]

So I’m super happy to receive this advantage since it puts me in a strong position to make deals with the rest of the house for them to try and leverage this power. If I play this correctly - and I hope I do - I could keep my ally Dani safe this week, and keep powering forward with my alliance. On the other hand, I do have to use this power in full public view, so that may definitely shift me up people’s target lists if I make a move that doesn’t benefit them. It’s a very strong power; I just have to figure out how to use it to the best of my advantage. 

[McCrae] 

So right now Dom has to nominate another pair of Houseguests for eviction, and being one of the few options that he actually has of nominating, I need to make sure that I’m not going up on the block this week. I go to the room, and promise him safety if I ever get HoH, at least until the Pairs twist is over, which I think is a pretty good deal. Though he looks a little hesitant, I then say that I’ve played this game as an incredibly straight shooter, never making any side-deals with people, and I absolutely plan to stick to my word. Besides, I doubt anyone would strongly suspect the 2 of us working together. He then shakes on it. He asks me who I’d consider putting up, and I tell him just to go for whom he really thinks will be a threat to his game, and that I’m pretty sure he knows the answer to that question. 

[Dom] 

So everybody is trying to get me to nominate Victor and Leo, and perhaps that had been everybody’s plan from the get-go, to nominate them in the event Eddie and Buck ever came off the block. The thing is, I feel that I can definitely trust the both of them, that they’re unlikely to backstab me, and I could definitely see myself going to the Final 3 with both of them. And right now, I’ve even made a deal with McCrae and Dex to guarantee my safety moving forward. Although I love Dani, and I’d love to see her go far in this game that she loves so much, I have to consider doing what’s the best for my own game, and I just don’t think the answer is putting up Victor and Leo. 

[Ral] 

So Dom approaches me in the room, and asks me how I feel about going up as a pawn, which I’m definitely not comfortable with. Pawns always end up going home, and putting up 2 members of our alliance in Dani and I on the block is definitely a bad idea. I ask him why he doesn’t just nominate Leo and Victor since Victor is a very clear physical threat and the rest of the house should definitely have no problem with taking him out early in this game – Victor might be working with all of us, but I have no problem throwing him under the bus to keep my own bacon safe. He says that Victor has absolutely no social game and would be very easy to take out down the line because he has no idea how to strategize, and that Sophie is a very smart and strong social threat that we are all underestimating. I ask him if he thinks he has the votes to take out Sophie, and he thinks he could definitely convince McCrae, Amber and Amanda to do so, and alongside Nicole, Victor and Tomik, we’ll have the votes to evict here. I’m still personally quite hesitant of that claim, however. After this conversation, I tell him that I’m still definitely not comfortable going up on the block, and will definitely remember if Dom does end up nominating me.

[Leo]

So I hear from Ral that Dom is working with Victor and that we might need to take them out sooner or later, which of course I already knew about since I’m working with both of them. I then reassure him that he would absolutely have my vote to stay if he went up on the block this week - of course, between him, Sophie and Dani - but it’s at this point I have to decide between Hijack and my alliance with Dom and Leo, and whom I should trust and move forward with. Fortunately, Ral doesn't suspect that I’m working with Dom as well, so hopefully Dom is looking to evict Sophie either way, and it won’t be a problem. In the end, I do decide to tell Dom about Ral planning to come after him, and how he’s caught on to him and Victor working together since I feel that I’ll be able to trust the two of them over Ral and Dex in the long run. Dex has been chatting up absolutely everyone in the house – perhaps not entirely for game reasons, but building strong social relationships with everyone is definitely cause to be suspicious as to whether he’s truly loyal to me.

[Eddie] 

“This is the Veto Ceremony. Dani, Caleb and I have all been nominated for eviction, but I have the power to veto some of the nominations. I have decided to use the Veto on myself and Caleb. Dom, since we just veto’ed your nominations, you will need to name a pair of replacement nominees.” 

[Dom]

“Thank you very much. After much consideration, I’ve decided to nominate Ral and Sophie as the replacement nominees. Please take a seat.” In the end, I feel that Leo, Victor and I have a very strong loyalty, whereas Ral is definitely a very dangerous player even though I am working together with the rest of the couples - he’s very perceptive, very smart, and could definitely be a huge threat to my game. Although my main target this week with this nomination is Sophie, I could definitely see taking out Ral if I’m unable to scrounge up the votes otherwise. 

[Sophie]

I was not expecting this at all; I thought for sure that the obvious choice for the replacement nominees would be Victor and Leo. Evidently, they have worked out a deal of some kind with Dom to keep themselves safe this week. I thought that I had painted myself as not much of a threat in order to avoid nomination, but clearly that didn’t pan out. Or perhaps Ral just blew up both our games, who knows. That being said, I definitely still have some pull with Eddie, Buck and Caleb, and the rest of the ladies’ alliance will be going after Ral this week, so hopefully I can scrounge up the votes to stay this week. I have no idea if Dom is going after Ral or I with this nomination, so I better find out shortly. 

[Dani] 

I am really angry with Dom right now for not nominating Victor and Leo, and instead nominating two people that I’m actively working with - I need to have a talk with him after that. Regardless, I feel that the ladies would be loyal to our alliance, at least for this week, and with Calypso’s vote nullification, we have a chance of completely blindsiding Ral this week; now we just have to be very careful and precise in managing everybody’s vote, and there’s a chance that both Sophie and I can stay. 

Which Houseguest: Dani, Ral or Sophie will be the first Houseguest evicted from the Big Brother House? And which 2 Houseguests will win the Head of Household competition? Find out during the upcoming Eviction Chapter!


	5. Chapter 5 (Week 2)

[Sparky] 

Tonight, either Dani, Ral and Sophie will be the first Houseguest evicted from the Big Brother House. And who will win power as the 2 new Heads of Household? Find out right now, on this not-even-close-to live eviction chapter right now! 

[Ral] 

So whilst I’m frustrated with Dom for nominating me as a pawn, but if he’s sticking true to his word, then I should be safe this week and Sophie will be going home. Right now, I’m going through the votes, and we should have Victor, Leo, Nicole and Tomik all voting to evict Sophie if they stayed true to our alliance, so if I can just get 2 more votes, maybe from either McCrae, Amanda or Amber, then we should have the votes to keep both Dani and myself safe this week. 

[Tomik] 

So now that Eddie and Caleb are off the block, the Crusaders are very well positioned this week cause we have 5 votes to swing whichever way we want to, so we only need 1 more vote to decide the outcome; now we just need to decide on who we should vote out. Of course, Caleb and Eddie are still very much set on voting out Dani this week now that she’s vulnerable; she came really close to winning the PoV this week and certainly has a strong chance of doing so again next week – or simply winning HoH and putting us up. However, everyone knows Dani is a huge threat in the house from competitions to social gameplay, so I argue that it might be a good idea to keep her in the house and instead evict Sophie, who’s not a person who’s on everyone’s radar but whom could become a huge social threat later on. Since I haven’t yet revealed to the Crusaders that I’m the one who put Dani up as the Roadkill nominee, I’m arguing that it’s obvious that other people in the house are going after her, and that it’s clear she’s the house’s number one target. 

[Eddie]

Now obviously, Tomik wants to keep Dani over Sophie in this game, probably because if Sophie leaves, Ral gets a Golden Key, which is a massive advantage moving forward since it’ll at least get you through the next few weeks. However, I definitely have to consider what is best for my own game moving forward and our alliance as a whole, and right now, I’m still most certainly at the top of Dani and Dom’s hit list, so it’d be a good idea for us to strike a blow against them whilst we have the chance. I think Tomik is a very logical person, and I’m sure it’ll be very clear for him to see that taking out Dani here is the best move for our alliance. 

[Nicole] 

Right now, Dani and I are going over all the votes as to how everyone is likely to vote; we need to make sure that the votes are split enough between her and Sophie to keep our alliance intact. As much as I don’t mind working with Ral in our couples’ alliance, I do think that he is a very dangerous player that could go far in this game if not nipped in the bud. Caleb, Buck, Eddie and Dex are likely to vote out Dani; Victor and Tomik are likely to vote out Sophie since we’ll be keeping them in the dark, and the entirety of the girls’ alliance will be voting out Ral. So hopefully, if we can get McCrae and Leo to vote for Sophie, then we’d have a tie-vote situation and Dom would absolutely break the tie in our favour. Whilst ideally we’d want to get Ral out so that we can keep girls in the house where possible, in the event that we need to get rid of Sophie as collateral damage, that’s also not too bad for our game either way. I go check in with Tomik and tell him that we definitely have the votes to get Sophie out this week no matter what after enlisting Calypso, Amanda and Dex to also vote to evict Sophie. This will hopefully stop Ral from scrambling too much and make sure that Tomik will be the unsuspecting pawn in our plan to take out his husband. 

[Sophie] 

So I’m up on the block right now, but I have the reassurance of the various people that I'm working with that I'm not the target this week: Caleb, Eddie and Buck say that they’re going to be taking out Dani, whereas the ladies are planning on taking out Ral. But as it goes in Big Brother, you can never feel too safe if you ever are on the block. So right now I need to talk to some of the people in the House whom I’ve not really talked to, which is why I head over to find McCrae to work out where his head is at. He says that he’s still not sure where his vote is and it’ll all depend on what the house wants to do this week. I tell him that Dani and Ral are way bigger social and competition threats than I am - I point to the previous veto competition to illustrate my point - and to sweeten the deal, I promise not to put him on the block should I win Head of Household next week, which he’ll only profits off of should I stay in the house.

[McCrae] 

After my conversation with Sophie, Amber then comes over to me to talk about who I’m thinking of voting out this week. Suddenly, all these people whom I’ve barely talked game over are coming over to chit-chat; scrambling now that the eviction vote is on its way, I suppose. She then says that they definitely have the votes to take out Sophie this week, so I should definitely vote Sophie out come eviction night to avoid being in the minority. I thought Amber and Sophie might have been working together, but I guess not. There are so many different ways I could vote right now, and I just have to work out which is the best move for my game. 

[Dom]

The night before the eviction vote, I tell Victor and Leo that the plan is for everyone to vote out Sophie; with everyone in the couples’ alliance on board and Dani reassures me that the rest of her girls’ alliance will be voting with us, we should be getting Sophie out this week, and I want to make sure that my alliance votes with the majority. 

[Calypso]

The night before the live eviction whilst everyone is preparing for bed in the bathroom and such, I pull Leo aside just to check in with him how he’s planning on voting tomorrow. He tells me that he’s thinking we should vote out Sophie to keep bigger threats in the house and draw attention away from himself, which is perfect since I don’t even have to convince him to do so. I reassure him that I also plan on voting out Sophie this week, and that between everyone we’re working with, we have the votes to take her out this week. I just hope that come tomorrow, I can use this power effectively to hopefully save both my alliance members from going home. 

[Sparky] 

Houseguests, 1 by 1 you’ll head into the Diary Room to cast your vote to evict. McCrae, you’re up first. 

(For the purpose of being concise, here is how the votes panned out - 

McCrae - Dani  
Buck - Dani  
Leo - Sophie  
Victor - Sophie  
Amanda - Ral  
Caleb - Dani  
Nicole - Ral  
Eddie - Dani  
Tomik - Sophie  
Dex - Dani  
Calypso - Ral  
Amber - Ral) 

Right now, with 5 votes to evict Dani, Dani will be leaving tonight. But let’s see how the Tiny Trinket power shakes up the vote. 

Calypso, please stand up in front of the rest of the Houseguests, and inform everybody whose vote you are nullifying. “I choose to nullify Caleb’s vote.” 

[Caleb] 

Goddammit, we completely forgot about the power to nullify a vote when counting up how many votes we have to evict Dani. When Calypso nullifies my vote for Dani, I become really concerned that we might not actually have enough. If only the Crusaders voted to evict Dani now, then there's a very good chance that either Sophie or Ral end up getting evicted instead since that’s only 4 votes left, which would be an absolutely awful blindside. 

[Sparky]

With 4 votes to evict Ral, and 4 votes to evict Dani, Houseguests, we have a tie. Dom, please stand up in front of the Houseguests. When Dom casts his vote to evict, the evicted Houseguest will just have a few moment to gather their belongings and walk out the front door. Dom, please cast your vote to evict. 

“Ral, it’s been a pleasure getting to know you, but I’m sorry that I have to evict you.” 

[Tomik]

When the votes are revealed, I am absolutely floored and horrified by what just happened. I thought I could convince the rest of my alliance to vote out Sophie instead of Dani, but that ended up backfiring horribly. So now not only did I completely blow up my game by exposing myself as someone who votes for Sophie, which may completely come back to bite me later on in this game since she now has the Golden Key, but also meant that I accidentally got my husband evicted in the process, which is devastating. I’m really upset right now, and I know I’m going to need to get it together very soon for me to still have a chance in this game. I know that I sidelined him very early on in favour of playing my own game, but I still have no idea how I’m going to go through the entirety of this game without him by my side. 

[Sparky]   
Welcome Ral! I’m sure you didn’t expect to be sitting out here with me so soon. Ral, going into this live eviction, you thought you were a pawn, you thought you were safe this whole week. 

[Ral] 

*laughs* Yeah, I definitely didn’t expect to be here right now, I thought I was safe for sure. From the veto ceremony to now, my primary alliance had been reassuring Tomik and I that I was safe, that Sophie was the one who was going home, and then we have the least results where Sophie has the least votes cast against her. I suspect that Sophie maybe struck a deal with Dani and Nicole to ensure her safety or something. Either way, I definitely made a mistake in getting too comfortable with my alliances and should have spent more time campaigning aggressively and keeping my ear to the ground. 

[Sparky] 

In the event that you were the one evicted tonight, your Houseguests recorded some goodbye messages. 

[Dani] 

Hi Ral, it’s been really nice getting to know you, and you’re a wonderful person and I hope that we can be friends outside the house. Unfortunately, I’ve had to make deals and get some votes in order to ensure my safety this week, and you’re just the unfortunate casualty of that plan. 

[Leo] 

Ral, my man! I really hope that you’re not seeing this at all. It’s been an amazing ride working with someone I respect and admire so much, and if you are leaving tonight I hope we can continue to stay in contact after this. (Ral: I hope so too; he’s an amazing kid.) 

[Tomik]

Ral, I hope that you aren’t seeing this, because if you are, then something has gone terribly wrong. You’re the shining star to my buzzkill *Ral laughs* and we’ve been through all of the ups and downs in life together. I don’t…I don’t know how I’m going to get through the ups and downs of this game without you. Love you. 

[Ral] 

Wow, that was…As a Big Brother superfan, I’m super bummed to be the first person evicted from this house; it’s been a dream of mine to make a deep run in this game, play like the rest of the greats. I guess I got a little too self-confident and in over my head. I really hope that Tomik makes it far in the game: he’s smart, he’s got great negotiation skills, and I really think he could absolutely win the whole thing. Tomik, if you can hear me - not that you will – win this for the both of us. 

[Sparky]

Thank you Ral; it’s been a pleasure. Up next, we have the live Head of Household competition, where 2 new Houseguests will be crowned the Head of Household. Houseguests! Dom, as outgoing Head of Household, you will not be eligible to compete in this competition. This Head of Household competition is called ‘Tunneling Through,’ and here are the rules: in each of your lanes, you will need to crawl through a tunnel and retrieve puzzle pieces from a box at the end of your lane, which you will bring back to your board. You may only bring back one piece at a time. Once you’ve think you’ve got the puzzle completed, buzz in. Be warned, some of the puzzle pieces are decoys, and will not fit in the completed puzzle at all. The first two Houseguests to buzz in with a correctly completed board will become the two Heads of Households for the week. Does everybody understand? Excellent; please get ready. You’ll begin at the sound of the claxon. 

[Dom]

I feel horribly blindsided right now – by my wife, no less. I thought that we were all voting to evict Sophie, yet somehow I’m breaking the tie between her and Ral, our alliance member? On top of that, I’ve left Leo and Victor caught in the minority vote, which means there’s a chance that they get put on the block this week, or myself, for that matter. I can’t play in this upcoming HoH and am in such a poor position in the house right now – if anyone besides Dani wins this HoH, I think I’m probably going up. 

[Buck]

When the claxon sounds, I immediately scramble for the tunnel and just start crawling through that thing as quickly as my body can get me - they clearly didn’t design the tiny tunnel for small guys like. My strategy is to just get all the pieces from the box back to my board as quickly as possible, before working out how to put together the puzzle. Since there are decoy pieces, I don’t want to spend any time hung up on them trying to work out if they work, I want to have all the pieces to work with so that I can get a better picture. I know that Dom ruffled a lot of feathers last week by putting up Ral and Sophie, and I know that people might target me because of my affiliation with Eddie. So to avoid being in everyone’s crosshairs this week, I need to win this HoH. However, I am finding myself getting stuck in the tunnel a lot whilst trying to shove across puzzle pieces - not good. 

[Dex] 

So once again, I find myself in a really good position with this HoH competition. Being almost a foot shorter than the rest of the guys, it’s much easier for me to manoeuvre my way in and out of the tunnel and getting the puzzle pieces. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly what one would call fit, and after a couple laps in and out of the tunnel, I’m already feeling very winded, and have to pause next to the board for breath. Definitely should have exercised more before coming in here. Gosh. 

[Amanda] 

I’m getting all these puzzle pieces, and I realise that it’ll end forming up the acronym HoH. My strategy in this competition is to find all of the edge pieces first, and then start piecing together the middle pieces; since I know what I’m looking for, I’m already starting to look out for which pieces I need when I’m at the puzzle piece bin. Unfortunately, I’m not exactly fast, and I already see people in other lanes bringing back way more puzzle pieces than I have. Uh oh. My track record for winning competitions isn’t exactly great, and I really want to bring home the win this time to keep my alliance safe and keep the momentum that we have going forward. We just managed to pull off one of the biggest blindsides in just Week 1, which means we need to win the upcoming competition to ensure our safety. 

[Calypso]

So I’m flying through this competition: I have most of my pieces already on the board, and now I’m trying to put them together. As I do so, I notice that there are some parts of the HoH puzzlel that aren’t really aligning correctly, like they’ve been zoomed in or out a little, so that the piece doesn’t quite align. Fortunately, there aren’t that many pieces that are misaligned, so once I’m able to put together the majority of the picture together, I’m just dashing back through the tunnel to try and find my last few pieces - I already know what I’m looking for so it’s a very quick dash back through the tunnel and finish the puzzle. 

“Congratulations Calypso, you are the first Head of Household!” 

I am so, so happy to win the HoH competition: I came into this game to prove that I’m a strong competitor, and I’m going to try and use this power to negotiate safety for the rest of the ladies this week. 

[Victor] 

Over the sound of everyone else, I hear that Calypso is the first person to finish, and while I know that she’s probably not going to put Leo and I for eviction to avoid the risk of her boyfriend going home, I still don’t know how the second Head of Household is going to act. So just to be on the safe side, I’d rather win the 2nd HoH for this week. I’ve got a lot of pieces on the board, but the colour scheme for everything is just so similar, and I’m particularly having trouble getting together the edge pieces in the right orientation. It’s just all straight lines everywhere. This is really throwing me off. 

[Eddie] 

I know that Caleb and I are still a massive, massive threat in this house, so I need to make sure that I am that other HoH to ensure my own safety this week. Having said that, I know I’m tall, and well built, which means I keep getting awkwardly stuck in this tunnel and have to shove my body at awkward angles, which is slowing me down a lot. I’ve stopped trying to carry the puzzle pieces all together and have instead taken to flinging the pieces across the tunnel instead. I finally get enough pieces where I can start putting together my puzzle, but I can see that Dani, Sophie, and Amber are all really close to finishing their puzzles so I need to hurry. And then I hear, “Congratulations Sophie, you are the 2nd Head of Household!” 

Damn. That’s really unfortunate; I think I got super close there. I was really hoping to get the power for myself, but since I’m working with Sophie, hopefully I can sweet talk her enough to keep myself off the block.

[Dani] 

So I’m incredibly disappointed to not win the Head of Household, but two of my allies in Sophie and Calypso have, so I actually feel very well-positioned for now. This week, my targets are still squarely aimed at Eddie and Caleb, and I don’t plan on missing a second time. 

[Sophie] 

So I’m a Head of Household for the week, which may or may not be good for my game. I’ve made deals and alliances with almost everyone in the house, and I figure no matter who I put up, it’ll be showing my cards either way. I considered throwing it, but once I heard Calypso win the first Head of Household, I knew I should try win safety to ensure that I don’t get put up by the Roadkill winner regardless since I can’t be nominated by the Heads of Household right now, and hopefully I can convince Calypso to keep me as the sole Head of Household so there’s no chance that I get evicted this week. This week, I need to talk it over with everyone whom I’m working with, see who I can trust, and make the move that will get me the furthest in this game. 

[McCrae]

Sophie has won the Head of Household, which is great since that’s half of the battle done. She should stick to the deal that we made and keeps me safe this week. I’m not sure where I stand with Calypso, however, but I don’t think I’ve been particularly threatening toward her, so I hopefully I can at least wiggle my way off the block. 

Who will Calypso and Sophie nominate for eviction? And who will win the Battle of the Block? Who will the Tiny Trinket advantage for the week? Find out all this on the next chapter of Big Brother!


	6. Chapter 6

[Calypso]

So I’m a Head of Household this week alongside fellow alliance member Sophie - which means that our alliance should have complete control over who goes home this week. Once everyone has arrived in our HoH room for the customary room reveal and subsequently dispersed, I immediately start strategizing with Sophie about who we would try and get out this week. I immediately pitch to her that we should be trying to evict Eddie and Caleb: they were so close to going home last week, they’re going to be coming guns-a-blazing for our alliance, and therefore they should definitely be our number-one priority to get out of the house. The only question is whether we should put them up on the block from the get-go, or whether we should try and backdoor them. They’ve already proven themselves capable 

[Sophie] 

When Calypso brings up the idea of backdooring Eddie and Caleb, I immediately back up the idea – although I’m currently working with Buck, Eddie and Caleb, I don’t want Calypso to get any wind of the thought. However, I have so many deals and alliances with people all around the house, so it’s going to be very difficult to put anybody on the block without breaking my word. The way I figure it, there’s no way that Calypso would want to put up Leo and Victor this early in the game and put her boyfriend at risk this early in the game, so I propose Buck and Dom. On top of that, since Dex is close with Leo, I don’t think I’d want Leo to go home at this stage either. Ideally, I put up some competition threats as pawns, they take themselves off the block, and Calypso remains sole HoH. That way, I can get through this week with minimal blood on my hands. Dom and Buck are also competition threats, and if the veto isn’t used, it wouldn’t be bad for our game to take them out either. The only question is who we can put up on the block next to them that will actually be able to beat them in the Battle of the Block. We immediately rule out Amber and Nicole, so it’s down to either Amanda and McCrae or Dani and Tomik. Hopefully one of them agrees to go up as a pawn in case they do still end up losing the Battle of the Block. Calypso should also ideally be the ones to put up Amanda and McCrae should we decide to go that route since I did promise McCrae I wouldn’t put him up. 

[McCrae] 

So Sophie’s Head of Household, and I’m hoping that she’ll stick to her deal of keeping me off the block this week, but I’m not entirely sure where her head is at. When I went up to speak to her, she promises that she has no intention of putting me up on the block, which is great, but she says that Calypso might be gunning for me cause apparently, I haven’t really talked any game with her, which is…entirely true. Damn. Sophie adds that Calypso suspects that I’m in an alliance with Eddie, Caleb and Buck because of the lack of conversation with her, and she’s just completely on the money right now. Maybe we’ve all underestimated Calypso a pinch – she’s definitely more perceptive of a player than we might be thinking, and we might need to take her out. 

[Dani]

I’m up at the Head of Household Room with the rest of the Knights, and all of a sudden Calypso and Sophie bring up the idea of using Amanda and I as pawns. My first reaction is absolutely not! I was on the block last week, and I don’t want to risk being on the block again this week. Pawns in this game go home so frequently. I propose putting up Victor and Leo instead of one of our own, but obviously Calypso is completely against that idea. I guess since she’s in power, she can call the shots. She argues back that it would be far too obvious that all the girls are in an alliance together, and we need to cover our tracks, which is a ridiculous statement, because that’s already obvious from last week’s voting pattern. Frankly, it doesn’t matter which person I’m not aligned with we get rid of. I’m not the one getting the blood on my hands this week, so if Calypso and Sophie evict one of the boys this week, that’s the best for my game. 

On the other hand, I had to burn a lot of bridges to keep myself safe and Sophie safe last week – the couples’ alliance is completely toast, and I don’t think Dom trusts me now either since I kept him in the dark and exposed the rest of his allies in Victor and Leo as we had predicted. 

[Amber] 

After our alliance meeting, I definitely start to see some tension between Dani and Calypso - for good reason, I’m guessing. They’re both strong competitors, big personalities, and obviously they’re going to have some clashes with each other. Whilst I’m not ready to completely close the door on the girls’ alliance just yet, Nicole and I should definitely start hedging our bets elsewhere. Since Calypso is HoH right now, we definitely can’t take a shot at her, but we could try going after her boyfriend Leo. I think the fact that Calypso would rather put one of our own than Leo demonstrates that she’s not fully committed to our alliance, and hopefully we can convince Sophie to put up Victor and Leo, and hopefully get the votes to send Leo home. On top of that, Sophie should know that Victor and Leo voted to send her home last week, so that should provide plenty of motivation to send them home. 

[Leo] 

Later in the evening, Dex and I head upstairs to the HoH room to discuss strategy with Sophie, and to just fill each other in on what’s happening right now. She said that the girls’ alliance is planning on targeting Eddie and Caleb – how original - but they’re going to try and backdoor them instead; on the other hand, Dani and Amber are proposing putting Victor and I up on the block, which is helpful information. Since I’m aligned with Sophie right now, and I’m kind of feeling that she won’t break her word to me this early in the game, I hope that’s enough to keep me off the block even if her other allies are pressuring her – I tell her that she can say she cut a deal with Victor and I to keep each other safe until jury, and since Victor is a pretty fearsome competitor, it’s not entirely outlandish. The question right now is whether we even try and evict Eddie and Caleb at all; being the big targets that they are, it might be a better idea to leave them in the house since everyone is going after them, and instead take out a quieter, more strategic threat instead, like Tomik, who’s looking particularly vulnerable after Ral is gone. 

[Dex] 

So right now, since my ally in Ral just got evicted in Week 1, I don’t really have anyone that I’m really working with right now, so my plan this week is to stay cool, fly under the radar, and just slowly build up relationships with people to get me through the next few weeks on the game. Regardless of who ends up remaining as HoH, I’m feeling pretty secure right now. After talking with Leo, Sophie confides in me that she’s not entirely sure as to where Leo’s loyalties lie – after all, Leo did try to vote her out last week. I assure her that Leo’s just a pawn in someone else’s game, and that it was Dom pressuring him to vote that way. Leo’s definitely loyal to us, and I hope I can convince Sophie of that. 

[Caleb] 

I hear from Nicole and Amber that Sophie and Calypso are planning on backdooring Eddie and I, so I head up to the Head of Household room when I know Calypso is out in the backyard just to make sure that my alliance with Sophie is still intact - not that I plan on clueing Amber and Nicole in that I’m working with her. When I ask her about the plan for this week, Sophie says that it was entirely a ruse to throw off Dani and her fellow HoH Calypso, and she says that her real target is breaking up Dani and Dom this week, regardless of who wins Battle of the Block. She said that ideally Eddie or I would win the PoV and keep nominations the same so that for sure one of them are headed out the door this week. I hope she keeps her word and doesn’t backstab us, because if she does, it would be disastrous for my game. On the other hand, Sophie hasn’t done anything in particular to gain our distrust – we voted to keep her in the house last week, and I hope she returns the favour. 

[Calypso] 

“This is the nomination ceremony. As Heads of Household, it is our responsibility to nominate a pair of Houseguests for eviction. By random draw, I will go first. … I have chosen to nominate you, Dom, and you, Buck for eviction. You’re both strong physical and social threats in this game, and I hope you understand that this is purely a game move.” 

[Sophie]

“… I have chosen to nominate you, Dani, and you, Tomik for eviction. You’re both really strong competitors, and I wish you both the best of luck in the Battle of the Block.” 

So before we wrap up the veto ceremony, there is an envelope from Big Brother for us to read out. “Nicole, you have won the Tiny Trinket this week, and thus have earned the power to grant one of the 2 pairs of Houseguests an advantage in the upcoming Battle of the Block competition.” 

[Nicole] 

I’m trying to act as if this is a really tough decision for me, and that I’m struggling to decide who to give the advantage to because I don’t want to make it seem too obvious as to who I’m aligned with. However, the choice is obvious. Hopefully, with the advantage, Dani and Tomik can win the Battle of the Block to keep themselves safe and pull off the subsequent backdoor plan. 

[Victor]

So when neither Leo nor I don’t get nominated this week, I’m immediately suspicious that there’s a good chance that we might get backdoored. Leo has assured me that neither Sophie nor Calypso plan on doing so, but frankly, he’s an incredibly naïve player, and they could very easily be lying to him. So after the nomination ceremony, even though Leo is Calypso’s boyfriend, I just want to make sure that we aren’t going to get put up as replacement nominees if the veto does get used. While I’m relatively certain that Calypso’s statement that she would not put me up is pretty genuine, I’m definitely not vibing with Sophie, and I think there's a good chance that I’m on her radar. So once everyone’s gone for dinner, I have a private talk with her, proposing that she, me, Leo and Dex could all work together and formalize our secret alliance and that we could pit both sides of the house against each other. I tell her that we’ve all proven ourselves to be strong at competitions, and therefore could easily take turns keeping each other safe. She agrees, and we decide to clue in Dex and Leo as soon as possible. 

[Buck]

So I’m on the block right now, having been nominated by Calypso. That being said, Eddie and Caleb haven’t been nominated at all, just as Sophie said she’d ensure, so hopefully I can win this Battle of the Block, take myself off the block, and keep Dani on the block so that, barring another crazy twist, we can finally send her home this week. Given the votes from last week, I think it’s fairly obvious that Nicole is working with Dani, but I do wonder if she’s also working with Tomik since he didn’t seem particularly surprised. I’m not sure if I completely trust Tomik right now given that he voted without us and missed the opportunity to send out Dani last week – maybe there’s an alliance there that we’re missing. 

[Tomik] 

So I’m not surprised that I’m up on the block; though I really did try very hard to lay low this week, it’s definitely kind of tough to do that when Dani’s your partner, and she’s still the house’s number 1 target. Considering I was championing to send Sophie home last week and that spectacularly backfired, it’s not surprising that I’ve been nominated by her this week. That being said, even if I do remain up on the block after the Battle of the Block competition, I think between my alliance members, I can muster up the votes to stay in the house over Dani. I’ve gone around reassuring that I’m still completely loyal to our alliance, though I’m not sure how much they entirely believe me. I’m in a tight spot this week, but I still don’t think I’m the biggest target in the house. 

[Dex] 

“Houseguests! It’s time for the Battle of the Block competition. Calypso’s nominees will battle Sophie’s nominees to take themselves off the block and dethrone the Head of Household who nominated them. Here are the rules: Houseguests will be navigating their way through 3 platforms whilst being tied to each other standing on a balance beam. They must take turns moving from the center platform to their bin of blocks at each end across a balance beam, before slowly shifting back to the center platform in order to place their block. If a Houseguest were to fall off the platform at any time, they must resume from the platform where they last left. Any blocks that fall onto the floor are considered out of play.” 

“In addition, since Nicole gave Dani and Tomik an advantage in this competition, they will only need to stack 12 blocks instead of the 15 that Buck and Dom have to; the first team to finish stacking their blocks wins the Battle of the Block. Who’s ready to play ‘Supported Stacking?’”

[Dom] 

I’m up on the block this week, which is frankly unsurprising since I was completely blindsided last week, but right now I just need to focus on getting myself off the block so that I am safe this week. I mean, it’s not a big surprise, since Buck looks like a physical threat, and I’ve proven myself to be a physical threat, but that just gives us the chance to pull ourselves off the nomination block. I haven’t worked with Buck in this game thus far, but that doesn’t mean we can’t work together right now. So once the klaxon goes, Buck and I are immediately carefully shifting across this balance beam. We’re both big guys, and it’s easy for any sudden movements to send us off course. Since we’re tied together with the rope, we have to be very, very careful moving at all, and making sure that we’re constantly communicating, cause falling off at any point is going to cost us a LOT of time. 

[Tomik] 

The moment I see that this is essentially a balancing competition, I know that we’re screwed even with the advantage that Nicole gave us. For you see, I have no sense of balance: my mind is sharp, I can think quickly on my feet - trait of any good lawyer, really - but Ral knows that I essentially have 2 left feet when it comes to precise physical co-ordination of any kind. We had to practice our first dance at our wedding for far longer than it should have taken. And I’m trying my very best to stay on the balance beam, carefully placing one foot in front of the other, but I’m sweating, super nervous and just one wrong weight placement has both me and Dani tumbling to the mats. Damn it. I know that Dani is a really strong competitor, and that right now she’s really frustrated to be burdened with me. 

[Buck] 

“Buck and Dom have 7 blocks stacked, and Dani and Tomik have 1.” So right now, judging from the scoreline, and the fact that Tomik has literally not stopped falling off the beams, we are completely smoking them right now. Honestly, I’m not sure if he’s deliberately throwing the competition to make sure that Dani, one of our alliance’s biggest targets stays on the block, or if he’s just really bad at this competition. Probably the latter, if I’m honest – this competition doesn’t seem like his type of thing. It is far too obvious. But hopefully, if Sophie stays in power, she’s one more person competing in the veto to keep nominations the same, and we’ll have the votes to finally send Dani out the door this week. 

[Dani]

Tomik is currently making it really, really hard to regret completely blindsiding him - he’s performing so poorly at this competition so that it makes me want to tear my hair out. I don’t know if he’s deliberately throwing this, but he’s got to know that there’s a chance that he still goes home if he’s on the block. 5 year olds could probably balance better on a beam than he could. Seriously. Thank goodness the foam mats to cushion our landing every time he drags me down with him are soft - there really isn’t that much slack between us on this rope. We’re just about to put down our 3rd block when I hear, “Congratulations Buck and Dom, you have won this Battle of the Block and are now safe from eviction!” Surprisingly, it wasn’t even close. So unfortunately I’m still on the block right now, but hopefully, Sophie will follow through with our alliance’s plan to backdoor Eddie and Caleb. And if one of them somehow wins the veto and keep themselves safe this week, I’m sure I can pull the votes to send Tomik packing right after his husband. Sorry, not sorry. 

[Eddie] 

So far this week is going amazingly thus far. I haven’t been put on the block; Calypso, whom I haven’t really talked game with, has been dethroned as HoH and Sophie remains sole HoH. Sophie should keep her word, and we can send Dani packing this week. There’s still a chance that someone uses the Power of Veto and removes Dani and Tomik from the block, and then Sophie might put me up, but ideally, either Caleb or I get picked to play and keep the nominations the same either way. 

[Nicole] 

Somehow, even with the advantage, Tomik and Dani still completely bungle the Battle of the Block and lose the competition, which is disappointingly impressive. I do think that Calypso is more likely to follow through with the plan to backdoor Eddie and Caleb – for some reason, I don’t trust Sophie quite as much as I do Calypso – but I don’t think Sophie would go against the house this early in the game. Either way, I do think the odds of her trying to backdoor Amber and I are rather low, so for now, I only need to be worried about the Roadkill nomination. 

[Sophie]

I’m the only Head of Household left, which guarantees my safety for the week. Unfortunately, that means I’m going to have to end up showing my cards one way or the other, and that means breaking deals with everyone no matter what I end up doing, which is unfortunate. Maybe it wasn’t the right move to gun for the HoH this week. I just need to work out who it makes the most sense to work with moving forward and what is the best option for my game moving forward. 

Who will win the Roadkill competition? Who will win the Power of Veto? And will they use it to save any of the nominees? Find out on the next chapter of Big Brother!


End file.
